What you need to know
- Google's long streak of AI advancements continues with Flow and Flow Music.
- Each benefit from its new Gemini Omni Flash model, which brings a conversational touch to creating music and videos, alongside an extreme number of tools.
- Google announces that a Flow app is headed for Android (iOS waits a bit), as well as a Flow Music app for iOS (Android must wait a bit).
Google Flow has been expanded into an "AI creative studio" for interested users; however, the company sees more potential, and it's delivering that now.
This year's I/O has already been packed with loads of reveals, but Google Flow is making sure it gets its time on stage. This is an AI that's loaded with several of Google's AI models, like Imagen, Veo, and Gemini. Now, Flow and Flow Music are getting upgraded with a new agentic experience: Gemini Omni. Its involvement with Flow Music includes the ability to work "conversationally" with the AI.
Officially known as "Gemini Omni Flash," this AI lets users "guide the styles, subjects, and scenes to match the narrative and pacing" of their track. Omni's availability in Flow Music is coming for all Google AI subscribers.
Google Flow Music already leans on its Lyria 3 Pro model to help with users' AI-generated music creations. At I/O, the company revealed that it's rolling out improved editing and music video creation, too. Now, users are receiving more granular control over the tracks and where they want to edit. Google says you can highlight any part of your track in preparation for a change. Lyric translations and rewrites are available, as well as "restyles" for beat drops.
The idea of a music cover shines in this update, too. Google states users can reimagine their rock track into lo-fi or something else.
Omni heads to Google Flow
Alternatively, Google Flow handles all the other "creative studio" features users can lean on AI for. Omni is a big part of this, as it was for Flow Music. Google likens this AI model to Nano Banana, but for video generation. Omni in Flow grabs Gemini Intelligence for additional aid in blending real-world inspiration with generated content "conversationally."
What's more, Omni Flash's enhanced capabilities should facilitate better character consistency between scenes, such as their voice. This new AI model is coming to Google AI subscribers globally.
Elsewhere, the company introduced the Google Flow Agent and Flow Tools. The former is all about acting as your AI assistant throughout the creation process. It leans heavily into Gemini's systems to understand the complex tasks you might give it, so it can complete them with satisfying results. Moreover, the Flow Agent can help you with editing your videos, like turning a day scene into night.
This Flow Agent is available now (May 19) for all Google Flow users globally.
Lastly, the Flow Tools help users create their own set of tools, like color shaders or a video resizer, with "no required coding experience." Google says "existing tools" are rolling out for Flow users globally; however, Google AI subscribers can "create and remix them."
Take it with you
There's so much going on with Flow and Flow Music that Google doesn't want to restrict users to sitting at their PCs. The company says it's launching Google Flow and Flow Music apps for mobile devices. It states that the web-based versions (on PC) are still the "go-to," but these apps for phones are a little more flexible if you're out and about.
Users 18 and over can download the Flow app on Android in beta. Users with an iPhone will have to wait a little longer for this app, but iOS users can get in on the Flow Music app. This leaves Android users waiting for a bit until Flow Music arrives.
Flow and Flow Music step up the level of AI-generated content and tools available for users. This has pushed Google to lean into its transparency and verification software even more. It states, "Content transparency is a complex challenge, but we'll keep developing ways to push the technology forward and set a high bar for the industry." Verifying content advances, too, with the company saying it is adding this software to C2PA Content Credentials, to "easily check if content is an unaltered original from a camera or if it has been modified, and by what tools."
Android Central's Take
I enjoy seeing Google take verification and transparency seriously. There's a lot of AI here. I knew that coming into I/O this year that there would be. I'm sure we all did. This is content generated by a computer that lacks the true creative flair from a person who sat down to make music or to create a video or whatever. Understanding what's been AI-generated and what's legit makes navigating the web so much easier. It takes the guesswork out of things in a digital world where we're already skeptical.
